For several moments after the last creature fell, neither of them moved.
The western field had gone quiet.
Too quiet.
Shad stood with his spear lowered, watching the frost spread beneath the corpse nearest to him. The creature's black scales had begun to dull, its body slowly losing the unnatural cold that had made it dangerous.
The others were doing the same.
Whatever had been keeping them alive was fading.
Shad breathed out slowly. His own Energy Flow settled inside him.
The sensation of his recent breakthrough was still there.Category 4 Tier B.
He could feel the difference. Not simply more Energy Flow.
Something had changed in the way his power responded to him. His control was cleaner. His Ice Control felt less like something he was forcing into existence and more like something that had always been waiting beneath the surface.
Four Layers stirred within his soul.
Vast seas of Energy Flow, deeper and wider than they had any right to be.
He had built them through failure.
Three failed attempts before every breakthrough.
Three times he had reached for the next Category and fallen short.
And three times he had refused to let the escaping Energy Flow go to waste.
He had absorbed it. Forced it into his mortal body, strengthened himself with what should have disappeared.
It had been painful, but It had also worked.
But none of that explained what had just happened.
Shad looked toward the black pool
The six creatures had been strong.
But they hadn't been the real problem. The real problem was the energy inside them.
It had been cold. Almost like his, yet wrong, rotten, corrupted.
And now the pool was reacting.
Shad slowly looked down at the rune stones in his hand.
It had begun heating up again.
Fray noticed.
"So," he said, "we're going to talk about that."
Shad glanced at him.
"About what?"
Fray pointed toward his hand.
"The stone that's getting hotter."
Shad looked at it. The rune stones were warm against his palm.
He turned it over, nothing
.
The runes remained exactly as they had been before.
"Maybe it absorbed some of the creatures' Energy Flow."
Fray crouched beside one of the corpses.
He touched the dead creature's scales with two fingers.
"Then why isn't the rest of the field reacting?"
Shad said nothing.
Fray looked at him.
"Exactly."
Shad walked toward the pool.
Fray immediately stood.
"That's close enough."
Shad stopped.
The black water remained motionless. No reflection. No ripples. Nothing.
Yet the three stones was getting warmer.
Shad held it out slightly.
The temperature increased.
He moved it away.
The heat weakened.
He brought it closer again.
It intensified.
His expression hardened.
"It's responding to the pool."
Fray's reptilian eyes narrowed.
"Or the pool is responding to it."
Shad looked at him.
"Same difference."
"No."
Fray stared at the water.
"Not necessarily."
A faint tremor passed through the black surface.
Shad's fingers tightened around the stone.
Neither spoke.
Another tremor. This one stronger.
Then the water settled again.
Shad took another step forward.
Fray caught his arm.
"Don't."
Shad looked at him.
"I wasn't going to touch it."
"You were thinking about it."
"I was."
"That's close enough."
Shad almost laughed. Almost.
Then something moved inside his mind.
'It's old.' said the ponderer
The voice seemed to come from somewhere deep within his consciousness.
Shad remain silent but there seem to be a hint of smile on his face.
Another of his inner identities spoke.
'Hmm, it seems like it only resonate with the pool, who knows maybe there's something their it wants to return to after all it is a strange looking rune stones.' said the contemplator identity.
Shad remained silent mentally only acknowledging it words. He then looked toward the forest.
The blue light was still visible between the trees.
He had seen it countless times from a distance.
Eight years. Always there. Always watching.
Or at least that's how it felt.
"How old?"
The voice didn't answer.
Instead, another presence stirred.
'I'm just saying... that stone in your hand isn't heating up because of the monster.'
Shad looked down. The stone was glowing faintly now.
It's heating up because it's home.
His eyes narrowed.
"Home?"
Fray glanced at him.
"What?"
Shad didn't answer immediately.
He was listening. Not with his ears.
Something was happening deeper inside his mind.
Then the black pool rippled.
A single circle appeared at its center.
Then another. Then another.
The stones suddenly became hot.
Shad dropped it.
It struck the frozen ground.
Nothing happened. He stared.
The runes on its surface had begun glowing.
Fray moved closer.
"What did you do?"
"Nothing."
The stone lifted from the ground.
Only a few inches. Both of them froze.
The rune stones remained suspended in the air.
The glow intensified. A pressure descended over the field.
Shad felt it immediately. His Energy Flow reacted.
So did the four vast seas within his soul.
Something was looking at him.
Not Fray.
Shad's head suddenly throbbed. He grabbed it.
A voice entered his mind.
...The Key... has returned...
Pain exploded behind his eyes. Shad stumbled.
Fray caught him before he fell.
"Shad!"
"I'm fine."
"You keep saying that."
Shad pushed himself upright.
The three stones remained floating in circular motion before them.
The voice came again. Older, Weaker.
Broken by what sounded like centuries of silence.
'...Four layers... born of failure and tempered in frost...'
Shad stared at the stone. Then at the pool.
The voice continued.
'You bear the mark of the exiled... yet you carry the stone of the Gatekeeper.'
Shad's face tightened.
"What are you talking about?"
No answer.
"Who are you?"
The pressure increased.
For a brief moment, Shad saw something.
Not clearly. A shape. A pair of eyes.
Something standing somewhere beyond the surface of the pool.
Its gaze moved across him.
His scars. His posture. His Energy Flow. His soul. His four Layers.
Then the image vanished. Shad staggered again.
Fray steadied him.
"What did you see?"
"I don't know."
That answer came more honestly than Shad expected.
He looked at the pool.
There was nothing there.
The voice had disappeared.
For several seconds, only the wind remained.
Then the stones dropped. The heat had begun to fade.
He looked at Fray.
"Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"The voice."
Fray shook his head. Shad stared at him.
"You heard nothing?"
"I heard you talking to yourself."
Shad frowned.
"I wasn't talking to myself."
"I know."
Fray's eyes moved toward the pool.
"That's what worries me."
Shad looked back at the water.
The voice had called him something.
The Key. The exiled. The Gatekeeper.
None of it made sense.
He didn't know of any Gatekeeper.
He wasn't carrying anything he understood as a key.
And as far as he knew, he had never been exiled from anywhere.
At least nowhere that mattered.
He looked at the stones again.
For the first time, he wondered whether the rune stones had been waiting for someone.
But the thought made no sense.
He had found it by chance.
Hadn't he?
A faint vibration passed through the stones.
Shad's thoughts stopped.
The runes changed. Not physically.
Their positions remained the same.
But the meaning behind them seemed to shift.
Something was trying to speak.
Shad's headache returned.
'The gate... is open to you, Chosen Hero...'
The voice was barely audible now.
As though whatever had spoken was disappearing.
Shad held his breath.
'Beyond this valley... lies the true world.'
His eyes narrowed. The true world?
What did that even mean?
The voice continued.
'The war you escaped... never ended.'
Shad's picked one of the stone.
"I never escaped a war."
The voice did not respond to him.
It only waited.
Then silence. The stone went cold.
The black pool stopped moving.
Everything returned to normal.
Shad stood there for several seconds.
Fray watched him.
"What did it say?"
Shad looked toward him.
"It said there are a worlds beyond this valley."
Fray's expression remained unreadable.
"And?"
"It said there was a war."
"You were involved?"
"I don't know."
"Did it say who you were?"
Shad looked down at the rune stones.
"The Key."
Fray was silent. Shad shook his head.
"It doesn't make sense."
"No."
Fray looked toward the pool.
"But it doesn't sound like nonsense either."
Shad hated that.
He looked over the field. The dead creatures. The broken violet stalks. The black pool. The blue light beyond the trees.
Everything had begun with a simple investigation.
Now there was a voice inside his head claiming to know him. He didn't like it.
"We're leaving."
Fray nodded. Shad turned away from the pool.
They walked several steps. Then Shad stopped. Fray glanced back.
"What?"
Shad was looking toward the white petal.
It was still lying beside the black pool.
The same petal that had remained untouched for eight years.
But now It moved. Only slightly.
A tremor passed through its delicate surface. Shad stared.
The petal rotated slowly. Once,
then stopped.
Fray followed his gaze.
For the first time, neither of them said anything.
A faint sound came from beneath the pool.
Not a growl. Not a voice. Something deeper.
Something shifting far below the surface.
Shad's expression hardened.
He looked at the rune stones in his hand. Then at the pool.
The stone remained silent.
But Shad could no longer convince himself that the creatures had been the cause of what happened tonight.
They had only been the first thing to emerge.
Whatever was beneath the valley had noticed them, him in particular.
And now It knew they were here.
"Let's go," Shad said quietly.
This time, Fray didn't argue.
They left the western field behind.
Neither noticed that, beneath the black water, something had opened its eyes.